ORRIS ROOT 
This product of the Iris is apparently derived in Tuscany from I. german u a, and /. pallida. 
These species are known to the peasantry under the common name of Giaggiolo. The rhizomes are 
dug up in August and are then trimmed, peeled and dried in the sun and sold to dealers, who export 
them from Leghorn and Trieste. The pieces have a flattened, shrivelled appearance and bear on the 
under surface a number of small roundish scars where the roots have been removed. Their taste is 
bitterish, faintly aromatic and subsequently acrid, and they have a faint odour of violets. This odour 
is not present in the fresh rhizomes, which have simply an earthy smell, but is gradually produced by 
drying and keeping, not being fully developed until the rhizomes are two years old. 
The characteristic constituent of orris rhizome would appear to be a solid crystalline substance, 
called orris camphor, which is always found on the surface of the distillate when orris rhizome is 
distilled with water. The amount is said to be about o’ 12 per cent. 
At the present day the powdered orris root is chiefly used as an ingredient in tooth powders and 
in perfumery, but the report for 1900 of the British vice-consul for Leghorn mentions other curious 
industries in which orris root plays the chief part. One is the production of beads made from the 
root, with a fine hole through the centre. The beads are of many sizes, the smallest being about 
that of a marble. Not many years ago about twenty millions of these were exported every year, but 
now the number has fallen to four millions. It appears that there was once a medical theory that the 
best means of curing scrofula and certain diseases of the blood was to keep an open wound in the 
body of the sufferer and these orris-root beads were inserted into the wound for this purpose. It is 
still possible to buy from Italian medical instrument makers the special wire-grated bandage prepared for 
the arm in this process. Orris was probably used in this way because of its tendency to dilate in 
any liquid substance. The practice undoubtedly still prevails, though medical science has long condemned 
it. A factory for making these beads has recently been established at Paris, and the greater part of the 
Leghorn export goes to Lyons, while part goes to Frankfurt. The use of the beads is dying out in 
Italy, but it is not uncommon to meet people who have been treated in this way. 
Another article made from orris root is the dentarnolo, or finger, which is designed to take the 
place of the old-fashioned infants' coral and assist in teething. This is a modern and a growing 
industry and apparently reached Italy from Germany. In 1900 half a million of these fingers were 
sent from Leghorn to Germany and Austria. Orris-root grains, coloured in blue, red, yellow, green, 
and other colours, are exported to the same countries, where they are used to throw on fires to give 
an agreeable odour, while in the form of tiny chips the root is chewed, mostly by menservants, to 
remove the smell of tobacco, garlic and the like. 
UNIDENTIFIED SPECIFIC NAMES 
The plants described under the following names cannot be identified with certainty. In many 
cases, they were hybrids of garden origin and in others the description is so meagre and unsatisfactory 
that identification can only be tentative. 
I. Agatha x Hort. ex The Garden, XLVI. p. X 57. 1894. 
/. aphylla Hort. A synonym of I. plicata. 
/. atroviolacea, Lange in Bot. Tidssk. XIII. (1882), p. 18. ? = I. gtrmanica atropurpurea or I. Kochii. 
I. autumnalis, Tausch in Flora, XVII. p. 522 (1834). ? = /. spuria var. halophila. 
/. bicolor , Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. VIII. no. 13 (1868). 1 = 1 . spuria variety. 
I. Boltoniana , Roehm. et Schult. Syst. VegeL Mant. I. p. 308 (1822). 
I. Boltoniana , Hort. ex Regel, Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. i860, p. 31. 1 = 1 . versicolor. 
I. brachycarpa, Lodd. ex Steud. Nom. ed. II. I. p. 821 (1840). 
I. brcvicaulis, Rafin. FI. Ludov. p. 20 (1817). 
I. Bumati, Baker, Hdk. Irid. p. 33 (1892). 
This was only found once by Burnat and Townsend in 1872 on the rocks below Eze, Alpes 
Maritimes (K). There is apparently no trace of it now in that locality. It seems to be 
nothing more than a strong growing form of I. chamaeiris with deep purple flowers, and 
closely resembles specimens of the variety, called olbiensis, from Hy^res, when they have 
developed under cultivation in good soil. 
I. caesia, E. Berg in Flora, XVIII. p. 563 (1835). A hybrid Pogoniris. 
I. cardiopetala, Borbas in OBZ. XXXVlll. p. 325 (1888). A form of I. spuria. 
1 . Comitissae, Andry ex Trautv. in Act. Hort. PetrQp. IX. p. 240 (1884). 
1 . convoluta, Rafin. New FI. Am. II. 92 (1836). 
/. cucullata, Schur in Verh. Siebenb. Ver. Natunv. IV. p. 74 (1853)- Possibly a hybrid between I. pallida 
and I. germanica. 
1 . desertorum, Gueldenstadt Reisen, I. p. 80 (1787). 
I. desertorum , Balbis, Cat. Hort. Taur. 1813, p. 44. 
